There are already more than 83 active biomass factories in Spain

The latest map of solid biofuels prepared in April 2020 by AVEBIOM shows graphically and in tables the 169 pellet, chip and olive pit factories inventoried in Spain in the last year.

The map shows a total of 83 pellet factories active during the last year in Spain, one more than in the April 2019 inventory and the same number as in 2018.

In this period, five new plants have begun to produce their first batches of pellets in Catalonia, Andalusia, Galicia and Castilla y León, and four plants that were in the pipeline have not been completed.
On the other hand, seven factories that still maintained activity during 2019 will go into temporary shutdown due to various circumstances in 2020. The calculation of the theoretical maximum capacity of the plants has been revised and in 2019 it was close to 1,900,000 tons per year in total.

The maximum theoretical capacity is estimated taking into account the maximum production that the factories can achieve based on the granulators or dryers they have, working 8,000 hours per year. The number of plants with ENplus® certified production remains at thirty-nine, as in 2019, with a new drop and a new addition during the last year.

By autonomous community, Andalusia and Castilla y León, with 13 plants each , are at the top in both the total number of factories and ENplus® certified facilities, with 8 and 7 respectively.

Regarding chip production plants, AVEBIOM has inventoried 61 plants, 4 more than in 2019. Six new centers begin production and two close.

Most of the centers have productions of less than 30,000 tons per year - half of them have the capacity to produce up to 10,000 tons. Eight facilities produce more than 30,000 tons, and only four of them, all in the eastern Mediterranean region, are capable of exceeding 60,000 tons/year.

The latest inventory of olive stone producers includes a total of 25 factories. One plant disappears and two new ones begin to produce outside the main nucleus, in Badajoz and Toledo.

Production per factory is, in general, less than 10,000 t/year, although this varies with the annual olive campaign and this year two centers report capacities greater than 30,000 t/year.